Heavy Metal Kingz
by Darth Riven
Summary: It's a story focusing on Billy Kane and his life after Geese. Read it, Review it! FINISHED. First in three connected stories.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Prologue – Location: Kane's Laundry London, England

Ever since he had moved to England with his sister, Billy had had little trouble, it had been almost 5 months since he had moved away from Southtown, USA, returning to his native England, taking his sister Lilly with him, away from the violence and the gang warfare that had marred Southtown and now marred Second Southtown.

Late one night just before closing time, he sat behind the green bench strumming away on his guitar, in his own laundromat, one that he owned with his sister, their sustenance. The machines chugging away in the background, as the locals came and went, bringing their baskets, emptying them into the machines, putting the coins into the machine, the white and blue washing powder that they brought with them, closing the machine and then sitting back and chatting, as the machine began to wash, the clothes rotating round and round, tossing and tumbling.

Usually while they waited, the people would chat, catch up on what was going on around the locale, sometimes, they would come over and ask for help with something, usually wanting change for the machines. Some of the customers also enjoyed listening to his playing, no one complained.

As he sat their strumming away at his guitar, Billy saw a customer come in, he was a man of medium build, dressed in a simple black t-shirt and blue jeans, carrying a big basket. The sunglasses on his face hid his eyes, but their colour matched his dark black hair, which was closely-cropped.

Billy immediately noticed the cigarette in guy's mouth, the guy's hand went up to his mouth to puff, while holding his basket in his other hand.

Kai had moved into the area just that week, and at the instruction of his new neighbour, had taken his clothes to the laundromat to wash as he needed to do it. Smoking a cigarette and holding the overflowing basket of laundry wasn't wasy, but as he entered he realised he didn't have any change on him.

He looked around, the shop had twenty or so similar machines running at once, and he saw who he thought was the owner at the counter, strumming away at his guitar, the man wore a bandana, Kai noticed, as he walked up to the counter, he exhaled smoke, as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and held it between his index and middle finger. "Hey, can I get some change for the machine?" he asked the guy behind the counter, as he put his cigarette back in his mouth with his right, and pulled his wallet out of his pocket with his left.

He puffed away as he reached through his wallet, producing a note.

Billy stopped playing his guitar, and saw that the guy was puffing, "Didn't you notice the no-smoking sign at the front?" he asked.

"What sign?", Kai had been too preoccupied anyway, to notice the sign, "And anyway there's nothing wrong with me smoking here is there? It's not like I could put it out here right now. And do you have change for the machines?"

Billy, who hated smoking, was one iota away from punching Kai, who was beginning to fray his last nerve, "Put the cigarette out now, it's bad for the health of the other people in here, and then you'll get your change."

"What other people? There's no one else here anymore, so I can smoke, it ain't harming anyone else," Kai replied, and it was true, everyone else had finished their washing and had left.

"that's it." Billy's right fist cocked back and then extended towards Kai's face, fast. He fully expected to hit, but he didn't, Kai had caught his right fist with his left hand which was now wrapped around Billy's fist.

"Fine, since you asked so nicely," the sarcasm dripped from Kai's voice, as he let go and took his cigarette out and pushed it into the top of the counter, "I hope you don't mind the stain. Only came in here to do the laundry, not get into a fight, otherwise I might have been inclined to do more, and I hear that you run the only laundromat in the area, so pissing you off meant that the clothes don't get washed."

He handed over a note waiting for change for the machine, Billy flexed his fingers around, Kai's grip had been strong, "Yeah, I do run the only laundromat around here." he said, as he took the note and returned the requisite change for the machine, "next time, don't come in here smoking, and you'll have no trouble from me." He went back to playing his guitar again, as Kai picked up his change and went back to put his clothes into the machine.

Strains of guitar music began again through the laundromat, as Billy played his guitar, Kai hoisted himself up onto the bench in the middle of the laundromat, next to his basket. He kicked his legs to the beat of the music, as he waited for his washing.

After finishing one piece, Billy looked up and saw Kai sitting on the bench, "hey, get off the bench, that's not for sitting," he said. Kai just laughed and pushed himself off the bench, "whatever," he leant against the bench now, "I'm just waiting for the clothes to be finished and then I'll be out of here. I'm just a bit bored right now, no one else here to catch up with, and I don't think you're interested in talking."

"Yeah," Billy grunted, as he went back to playing on his guitar. Kai just leaned against the bench, waiting for the clothes to finish being washed in the machine, listening to the guitar being played. This guy is quite good, he thought as he looked at the washing tumble around, as the second piece came to a close. The clothes had finished by the time the third piece had been done, and he opened the washing machine and took his clothes and dumped them back into the basket.

"You're good with that thing, aren't you?" Kai asked.

"Mmm...Yeah, been playing for a long while now," Billy replied, as he looked up and saw Kai walking towards the counter.

"I can tell, the way you were playing, that your music has spirit and fire." Kai said, as he reached into his wallet, "anyway, I guess I should say sorry about before, the smoking thing, I was just being a jerk, had a bad day at work, marital problems. I suppose I should make it up to you somehow," he said, as he placed his business card down on the counter, turned around and left with his basket tucked under his arm.

Billy saw Kai walk out and disappear into the street, he then looked down at the bench and looked down at the card that the man had left, it read Kai Mellion, but the title underneath was the thing that caught Billy's eye, music agent, and the company name was MusicCo, the leading recording studio in the world. Billy got up off the bench and rushed out, but Kai was nowhere to be found, as he went back in he saw the writing on the back, "9am, tomorrow, MusicCo headquarters, bring your guitar".

What a weird man, Billy thought, but still this wasn't a chance to be passed up, he would go, Lilly could look after the shop, or that deadbeat boyfriend of hers that had followed, no stalked them from Southtown to England.

And so, that was the beginning...

* * *

Authors Notes: 

1. I have made certain assumptions/changes to "official" KOF storylines. Well, anyway, since they can't even get their continuity right, I've played around with it.

2. I made the assumption that Geese Howard is actually really dead (but that should have been fairly obvious)

3. Also, the ages of the characters have been changed by me, for the purposes of this ficcy, ages are Billy - 26, Lilly - 18, Joe - 20, Kai - 31, Kaia - 24. So yes, I have made them much much younger. But seeing as they all don't seem to age in the games...oh and Rock is 14-15. And this is pretty much set in 2004-2005-2006...and other KOF characters will appear, especially in the first few chappies.

4. Which brings me towards my OCs: Kai and Kaia. They are brother and sister. You'll see a bit more of their history throughout this ficcy, though not so much...

5.Also on continuity matters -I made KOF: Another Day Episode 2 actually happen, even though Billy was horribly drawn in the anime. Bad artist, LOL. I'm using the pic from KOF:MI2 in 3D as his likeness.

6. Apologies in advance for any OOCness, any unfair nerfing of characters, any graphic violence that will occur later (such that this will become M rated but is not yet...)

7. All and any constructive criticism and reviews are definitely wanted...more reviews makes me very happy


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Chapter 1 - Location World Music Awards, Second Southtown, USA

It had been a year since Heavy Metal Kingz had been formed, a year since that weird and fateful night. He had turned up the next day with his guitar, and found that Kai was in the process of setting up a new band, and that he wanted Billy to be lead guitarist. He had already found a drummer and a bassist, but he had needed a guitarist, and one with a lot of talent at that. He had gotten Billy to play a simple tune, and then had added the bass and then drums into it, seeing how the sound mixed, Kai was impressed as were the other executives and songwriters who were present.

And that day, the rock sensation known as Heavy Metal Kingz had been born. The next six months ran by quickly, even though they were a lot of hard work, playing, recording, writing songs, and now touring. It had meant that he had spent a lot less time at the laundromat, and that Lilly now ran it most of the time. And her deadbeat boyfriend was now at least useful, though he would never actually ever admit to even thinking it, there was someone to look after Lilly while he was away. And he was away often now, touring, promoting, he had never expected that Heavy Metal Kingz would storm to the top of the charts so quickly, their CD was had multi-platinumed in the UK, platinumed in the USA, their hit single Fallen Angel, had spent a solid 10 weeks on top of the charts both in US and UK.

To top it all off, the band had been invited to play at the World Music Awards, and they were also nominated for a couple of awards as well, like Best New Band, best album and a couple more.

Of course, it had meant returning to Southtown because that was where it was being held this year, but he hadn't told anyone about his past yet, it was best that the past remained in the past, though there had been rumours of his criminal past abounding, somehow they never made it to the papers, or were discredited. As a consequence, the rumours only managed to increase the 'bad boy' image of the band, spiking up popularity. The media machine at MusicCo had been working non-stop since the rumours had begun.

And the paparazzi that began to stalk the band somehow just never got pictures. There had been one particularly harrowing time, Billy thought, when they had rushed to a car, expecting that the paparazzi would follow on their motorbikes, but apparently somehow, someone had slashed all the tyres. He had heard that a lot of other bands and artists suffered from paparazzi intrusion, but they never did. Strange, but he preferred it that way, he thought, as their limousine pulled up to the awards ceremony, and the band alighted, and went backstage to prepare, they were leading off the show.

"Welcome to the World Music Awards, this year brought to you live from Southtown, USA", the host began, "this year, we're starting the party with a new band, the rock sensation, Heavy Metal Kingz with their hit single, Fallen Angel." Grey mist covered the stage as the curtains opened, and the band began to rock. The song began to permeate all through the hall and all throughout the world. Lilly was watching on a small portable TV at the laundromat, Joe besides her, dressed in a shirt and shorts, hugging her, as the music began to waft throughout the laundromat, both of them loving the time they were spending together without the bossy big brother of hers. Even though he thought he knew what was right for her romantically, Lilly thought, the fact was he was just as much of a novice when it came to romance, if not more of one. Sure Joe liked to brag and grand-stand, but it was the way he did it that made her like him, and the fact that he was sweet on her. And Joe wasn't scared away as easily as the others who had tried to date her before.

Back in Southtown, Kai was watching from the seating, the empty seats next to him saved for the band when they finished on stage, satisfied that the band had gotten so far in such a short time, really it was a combination of hard work, marketing strategy and sounding out the right people. Of course, those who dug around the private lives of the band members had to be dealt with. But he thought that the paparazzi by now had learnt not to snoop around his band, the first couple had had bad things happen to them, a couple of bashings, even an unexplained disappearance. The performance continued, as Kai sat back and listened to the band play, as the piece crescendoed and built up to its climax and then finished. The curtain closed and the host came back and began announcing the presenters for the first awards.

The band slipped back into their seats, "good job guys," Kai said, no cigarette in his mouth, because it was politically incorrect to smoke at something like the WMAs. And anyway, he really smoked just to annoy Billy, it was like a game, when he wanted to annoy Billy, he just smoked and puffed in his vicinity. And blocked any punches that were thrown his way, the first few times at least. There were a couple of black eyes since then, and a couple of nasty whacks from his staff, but then again, the pain was worth it.

Kai watched the awards from his seat, as they announced the WMA for best new band, he silently hoped that they would win. "And the winner of the best new band goes to the...the host paused as he opened the envelope..."the new Rock sensation, Heavy Metal Kingz." It took a couple of seconds to register in Kai's brain that his band had won, but he saw that his band was just as dumbfounded, "guys I think you should go up there and collect the award." The band walked up onto the stage, and they all shook the announcers hands and held up the little WMA award, Billy went to the microphone, and thanked everyone for attending and everyone who was watching, the other bands, the listeners out there, the recording company, Kai, and a special thanks to the families and close friends of all the band members.

Tears began to form in Billy's eyes as he got to the end of the speech, he had really wanted to thank one man in particular; the person who had given him his beginning, his confidence, but to mention that name would be virtual suicide. (A/N: you should all know who it is). The band sat back down, and the awards continued to be presented. All in all, the event went smoothly and by the end of it, everyone was ready for the after-parties, the biggest one in the Stateroom of Southtown's biggest hotel.

Location: Stateroom Southtown's biggest hotel

The afterparty got into full swing, at the stateroom of the main hotel in Southtown. Most of the big stars were there, the winners of most of the awards, as well as prominent locals that had been invited.

Billy saw that Kai was talking with some other manager, he looked over at the security guards and at the people around the party, and he saw someone, someone familiar.

Her short blond hair still remained short, concealed under a cap, she was dressed in official security type uniform, though it had been augmented by a large belt holding her walkie-talkie, and other stuff.

Billy sauntered up to her, "Hey, Mary, long time no see," he said.

Mary turned around from where she had been sitting, "hey yourself, you shouldn't be distracting me from my job," she replied, a bit startled.

"You part of the security?" Billy asked.

"Head of security, I've got a lot of the other guys here too, the Mayor was pretty serious with making sure nothing untoward happen," she pointed to a man with a blond ponytail, weaving his way through the crowd, "that's Terry," and she gestured behind her, "that's Rock, he's posing as the bartender tonight, we've got it pretty covered."

Billy smiled, not letting his dislike of Terry get the better of him, after all he knew that Mary liked him, "so it seems, Ryan, everything is under control" he said, emphasising the last word.

Mary feigned a hurt look, "You know that things are going to be fine, How are things in England?"

"Lilly's doing well, that boyfriend of hers has finally become useful in some way," he said laughing, but his look saying that if Mary ever repeated that... "he's looking after her and she's looking after the shop, while I tour, it seems pretty unfair that i have to be away so often, but that's life, and I think we're all used to it now. I think she prefers it that way sometimes, less chance for me to pick a bone with that boyfriend of hers. I heard her say that you and Terry were involved now."

"Yeah, we are, he's a nice guy, Terry, Rock and I are sort of a family now, especially since Andy moved to Japan to be with Mai."

"They finally shack up together? Took them long enough." He laughed, the people that he had disliked for a long while, now, they were just mere subjects of idle gossip.

"I hope this place doesn't bring back any bad memories, I thought that you would be gone for good," Mary stated, as she smirked.

"Hey, no fair, I thought it would be longer before I came back," he paused, "and there are still bad memories, but seeing you again is a good thing, and I think I might go visit the grave sometime," Billy replied, being careful not to mention a certain name which was still dangerous to mention.

"Okay, okay, so it is good to see you back here, come by tomorrow and visit, we'll take you around to all the new places." Mary replied, finishing the drink she had been given. "you'll find me here," she said as she wrote her address on a slip of paper and handed it over to Billy.

"Yeah, as long as I don't beat up your boyfriend right," he replied, laughing again.

"Hah, I think he'll be the one beating you up, Billy," Mary replied, smirking again, "he's done it plenty before."

"Hmph, my manager would go psychotic if that happened." They both laughed, finding it hard to imagine.

"I'll be sure to tell him to take you around." Mary's walkie-talkie buzzed as an update about the security situation at the party.

* * *

Author's Notes 2: 

1. Thanks to my two reviewers LegendarySuperNamek and Evan Jones.

2. I may go back and fill in that year later...but the rest of the story is probably more important

3. Apologies for upcoming OOCness. Gasp! All I will say is that Billy actually shows some maturity. Double Gasp!

4. I hope you all guessed who Billy wanted to refer to in his speech

5. The ending was a bit abrupt but this seemed to be the natural place to end it.

6. Sorry for any Joe-bashing that I'm doing as Billy, but seriously what older brother would not silently bash his sister's boyfriend, especially one that he hated. And similarly for Lilly thinking that Billy was just sticking his nose into her business where it wasn't wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Author's Notes Pt1: Early update...also a special long chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2 - Second Southtown, various locales

As the party wound down to an end, more and more of the partygoers retreated into their hotel rooms. Soon the party was over, and the place began to grow quiet. Outside, it was beginning to be near morning, the sun began to rise, a red-orange orb in the blue sky. Kai had not slept all night, but he was used to it, the band should be crashing in this morning, anyway after last night's party. He was about to turn into his hotel room, when he saw that Billy was exiting his, now that he remembered properly, Billy had left the party quite early. Kai waved, but it seemed as if Billy didn't notice, and he saw Billy walk down the stairs and out the hotel door. Kai followed, at a discreet distance, following Billy as he walked down the streets of Second Southtown.

Billy walked up to a small house, next to a bigger hall, which looked like a dojo. This had been the address that Mary had given him yesterday night at the party. Billy opened the gate, as it swung open the gate made a noise, as the hinges weren't that well oiled. He walked up the paved path to the door, noting the small garden was not that well tended to, and pressed the doorbell. Ding Dong. The doorbell rang, as Kai observed from down the street, hiding behind a telegraph pole, he made a mental note of the address of the house. He involuntarily yawned, the lack of sleep annoying. He had followed Billy because there had been no time to arrange for someone else, one of his agents to keep watch, or babysit from a distance, as he liked to call it. He had expected the band would sleep in after partying hard.

The door opened and Rock answered the door, tired from the job last night, even though he had left pretty early. Looking through the door, he saw Billy, who was in his usual outfit, blue jeans, blue leather jacket, and his trademark bandana. "Who you looking for," Rock asked, as he rubbed his eyes, still half asleep, not seeing clearly.

"Mary, she told me to come pay a visit, last night, at the party, I'm an old friend of hers who's in town for a visit, she said that she'd take me to visit all the new places in town," Billy replied.

Rock rubbed his eyes, sleepily, as Mary came downstairs for a morning cup of coffee, she noticed that the door was open, and that Rock was speaking with someone, she walked to the door and saw that it was Billy.

"Come in, Billy, I'm still a bit tired from last night, but have some coffee," Mary said.

Rock's eyes widened, "wait a minute, you're the guy from the awards last night, the frontman of that band."

"Yeah, and an old friend of Mary's, who was promised that he would be shown all the places around town before he has to leave," Billy said.

"Come in, and take a seat, we'll be ready in a second, why don't you wait here in the lounge," Mary said, "Rock, we're going to visit your father's grave today, Billy was one of his old friends."

Billy went inside, and sat down on the black couch that adorned the living room, settling in, drinking the coffee that had been offered. He looked around the house, some photographs adorned the wall, there were snapshots of Terry, Mary and Rock as a family.

The pictures bought a feeling of bittersweetness, seeing his old boss's son being raised by his old enemy, and yet, he was being raised by a good man, someone who cared about him, unlike Geese.

"You were friends with Geese?" Rock asked, "Geese didn't strike me as one to have friends." It was weird listening to Geese's son not referring to him as father.

"Yeah, sometimes, I think that I was his only friend. The only one he had. But I never knew if he thought of me as a friend rather than as an employee," Billy replied, looking down at the table, not meeting Rock's eyes.

Mary returned down the stairs, dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt, "Hey, let's go now," she said, as Billy finished the coffee, they left.

Outside, they got into a car, as Terry drove off, Kai took note of the number plate, and flipped open a PDA, tracking the car as it left, he went back to the hotel to pick up his car, and resume his watch.

Terry drove the car down through Second Southtown, passing row upon row of houses, on the way up the hill to the graveyard. As they pulled up to the gates, they parked the car, and they got out, and started walking towards the top of the hill, where Geese's grave was.

As they got close to the grave, they saw the lines of gravestones, in a morbid grey. Rock led them through the maze of headstones, making their way slowly up the hill. Terry and Mary had chosen to wait at the bottom of the final hill, out of respect.

Meanwhile, Kai had hidden behind a tree close by and was observing the whole situation, waiting for them to stop at someone's grave. Of course, he had had Billy's past thoroughly investigated, when he had first formed the band, and knew of his connection to Southtown.

Billy and Rock reached the grave stone, it was plain, but on the stone the name was there, Geese Howard. Billy bowed his head as he paid silent homage to his former boss. He heard Rock stir next to him.

"Mary said that you were really close to Geese," Rock asked again, reopening the conversation which had begun at the house.

"Yeah, used to be his right-hand man, that is until he died, but you should have known that," Billy said.

"Everyone says he was a bad man" Rock said, the sadness reflecting in his eyes. He had been selectively trying to blank out everything to do with his father, including his memory of what had happened on top of the Howard building that night.

"Sometimes, but he was good to me, he gave me a job when I had nothing. Helped me get enough money to bring up my sister, when we were orphaned," Billy replied, as he lay down some flowers by the grave. "Though he did have no mercy for his enemy, I think he believed that his way was the right way, that it was for the best for everyone."

"I felt abandoned by him, he didn't acknowledge me as his son at all, and last time we met you said that I shamed his legacy," Rock said, slightly angry, but more ashamed of his blood, not wanting to dredge up old memories of the past.

"Uhh, yeah about last time," he said as he gave a wry smile as he ran his hand over his bandana, sweating a little, "I was out of line...annoyed at that assassin, my fault," he shrugged, rearranging his bandana that he had just messed up, "never did find out who sent her though, but it convinced me of the danger of staying here. And as for your father, he probably didn't want you put in danger, he had plenty of enemies, and not just honourable one's like Terry. There were other dangerous ones, who would not have hesitated in killing you and your mother. It was dangerous to be around him, but I understand some of what you went through, growing up without parents."

"Terry and Mary are good to me, I think of them as my parents," Rock stated, looking down at the grave of his biological father, determined to think of him as nothing more than the father that had given birth to him, "but I feel cursed, his blood runs through me, people say that it is bad blood, that I'll be criminal because of my blood."

Billy paused, thinking, searching for the right answer, to the question posed by an obviously conflicted Rock, "You and he are different people, you had a different upbringing, different circumstances, Terry, even though I don't like him that much is a good person, he knows right from wrong. Your blood has nothing to do with the way you turn out. My sis and I are totally different people, yet we have to same blood."

"But..." Rock said, still unsure.

"I was just as bad as Geese in the day, we can all change for the better. Blood has nothing to do with it. Don't ever let anyone make you believe that you will turn out to be bad, just because your father was bad." Billy said encouragingly, trying to atone for his past mistake, having become wiser, and also this time there was no assassin trying to kill him.

"Thanks..." Rock replied, his mood having improved, as they descended the hill back towards the City, "I never did find out who sent that woman either, but there are definitely people out there who would kill us just for being related to Geese. And you are right, we may be related but we are still different people."

Later that night, after a day of visiting all the new places around town, and after Terry and Mary had left to do their couple things, Billy and Rock visited a bar in Southtown, owned by King. Kai, of course disguised himself as a patron in a dark overcoat and a hat, and sat there watching over his frontman, hunched over his drink at the counter, really tired.

Billy and Rock sat at a table, having formed up a fast friendship. The waiter brought them their drinks, and they sat down around a table, talking.

Billy had sat with his back to the door. The door swung open, and Iori walked in, Billy turned around to see Iori walk in, and he drew out his staff, got up from his seat, and walked towards Iori.

"Iori, you're a dead man," Billy said, getting up from the table and taking his staff out from under his jacket.

"Look that was ages ago, you still hung up on that," Iori replied.

"Shut up and just die," Billy began to move and Iori got into a fighting stance.

Suddenly, Iori found himself being propelled in the air, but it was obvious that it had not been Billy that had hit him.

Kai, who was in his overcoat had gotten up and sent Iori flying across the room with a palm to the side catching him by surprise more than anything, breaking a chair in the process.

"Sorry, miss bartender, I'll pay for any damage in the bar," Kai said, still in his disguise, "but no one tries to hurt my band members and gets away with it."

"Kai? That you?" Billy asked, shocked, as Kai took off his broad hat which had been hiding his face. "Have you been following me?" Billy had known for some time that occasionally, well often when they were on tour, there would be watchers following, making sure that nothing untoward happened to the band members, as he had spotted them easily, but he never expected that Kai would personally do the watching.

"Yeah," Kai replied, "I have to make sure that band members don't get into trouble," he emphasised the last word.

"You hit someone really powerful, that's Iori Yagami" Billy replied.

"Pfft, I'm not at all worried, I've spent enough time getting rid of any paparazzi to be able to deal with any overzealous fighter," Kai replied, trying not to tell the truth that he was actually an expert fighter himself, having trained in Chaos Arts.

"He's different, this guy fights for a living," Billy said, "he's definitely no paparazzi who can't fight."

"No difference, paparazzi try to run you over with motorbikes and campervans," he said as Iori got up. "Hey dude, I don't want to fight you, but I'll kick your butt if you try anything."

"Anyway he's mine, this is a personal thing, no need for you to get involved," Billy said.

"Not when you have responsibility to the band, and we're in the middle of a tour, can't have my frontman turn up to the concert anything less than one hundred percent, so you have to stay out of it," Kai ordered, his tone hard, allowing no argument.

Iori charged towards them, as Kai jumped in the air, towards his enemy and brought hit right leg down in a scythe like motion, forcing his enemy to block the overhead blow with crossed arms.

"Look, you should stop before this gets out of hand, I was just trying to stop the fight, but I can't let anyone hurt my band members, well things happen to them," Kai said, his eyes glinting maliciously, telling a different story, a primal part of him wanted to fight.

A punch began to come towards his head, but Kai raised his hand and blocked the punch full on, with his green chaosfire, fizzling sounds heard in the bar as his chaosfire backed palms blocked whatever was being thrown at him. Some of the patrons were staring in disbelief, this guy...they thought. Kai continued to block the blows.

"Look, I don't know what fight you have with my frontman and I'm sorry for hitting you, but don't you dare threaten any one of my band members ever again, or there will be consequences," Kai said, "I'll deal with what happens to my band members when they step out of line, not you, got it? You better leave now." Iori wasn't the least bit intimidated, but thought it would be wiser to listen to Kai's advice rather than reopen hostilities. He didn't fancy a two on one fight, not tonight, anyway, especially in King's bar since she did let his metal band play here.

The chaosfire waned. Turning to King, Kai apologised for the fight again, and then turned towards Billy, "you're in big trouble."

"What, he should be dead, he's nothing but a low-life traitor," Billy replied, almost growling it out. Kai glared his eyes, throwing a withering look of anger. "Alright, alright," Billy continued, "I'm sorry."

"You better be," Kai replied before turning to King, trying to think of a way to repay the poor manageress, and punish Billy at the same time, then the idea struck him, "Would you like the band to play here tomorrow night? I'm sure Billy here, would be most obliged to play, wouldn't you?" he asked, stressing the word obliged.

"Uhh, yes," he answered the words forced, after being given the death stare by Kai.

"Is that okay with you, Miss King?" Having received an assent, Kai got up to leave putting his hat back on, "Don't get into anymore trouble," he drawled as he left, the door swinging behind him. The people in the bar relaxed, glad the situation was defused.

Billy looked sheepish and angry at the same time, but he knew that Kai was right. He was on tour and had a responsibility to the band and to their fans, he guessed that he would just have to put up with the presence of that man...for now, at least until the tour was over. He returned to his drinks with Rock.

The next morning, Kai received a knock on his hotel room door, early in the morning, he opened the door and he saw Billy outside the door. "Come in, about last night..."

"I'm sorry about that, just that I really hate him, and anyway, what were you doing there last night," Billy said, trying to explain, hesitating.

"Looking out for you, making sure the band was ready to play at anytime," he laughed out after he had finished, "and having fun watching you squirm."

"I meant what was that bloody green glow on your hand," Billy asked, curious, he had thought that Kai was only a manager, and a pretty mild-mannered one at that.

"Ah...just wait a second," he reached in a lit his cigarette, he puffed, "Something I've had since I was young, when I lived in another country," Kai replied, "nothing that I want to go into, my past is something that should remain hidden from public view, like yours," trying to deflect the inquiry.

Billy was however unwilling to take the hint, as he brushed the smoke away, he knew that Kai was trying to annoy him into dropping his inquiry. This time it would not work, even though the smoking really got to him. Direct questioning would not work, so Billy tried a different approach, "You know that you just made a powerful enemy, right?"

"Yeah, that guy's quite good but as far as I'm concerned he's not my enemy, he's just someone who had to be stopped," he puffed again, "I also saw you at that man's grave," he laughed as he puffed out.

Billy waved his hands to clear away the smoke, "You were following me, didn't notice you at all," he said. After all he had known that Kai had had people following him, keeping watch, it was easy enough to spot them, given his experience, when they were around.

"Another gift I had since I was young, I'm good with disguises and hiding," Kai replied, laughing out loud, lying.

"So you know about the past and whose grave it was," Billy said, "You had better tell me yours, otherwise it wouldn't be a fair trade," he tried his hardest to glare at Kai, to force him to tell.

"Most of it, especially your involvement with him, and maybe I'll tell you one day, but not today, it's a long story," Kai replied, "and not one that you would really want to hear."

"Damn it, I didn't want that to catch up with me," Billy swore, his fists clenching.

"Your secret is safe, anyone who gets in the way will face the consequences," heavy implication in the last few words, "Why else do you think that the paparazzi never ever follow us?" Kai replied, calmly, "and anyway you don't need to worry, even if it does get out, you've already got an official pardon anyway, and the PRs will spin it into something good, it makes your bad boy image look badder," they both laughed.

"Hey, I remember the time when all their motorbikes were sabotaged," Billy replied after they had finished laughing.

"Who do you think sabotaged them?" he smirked, "By now they should have learned not to follow us. The kid you were with seemed nice. But we do have to play at that bar tonight, the others know that we have to play tonight, told them it was a personal favour to a friend, but you do owe them. Big time."

"He's Geese's son," Billy sighed as he replied, "He's such a conflicted kid, wish I could do something to help him, he's a mess, like I was when I first moved here."

"Hah, like I would care. And I think you've done a lot, such inspiring words," Kai said, "Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, unless you want to train with me, I'm off to breakfast," he joked, as he left the room, "we'll get there at four this afternoon, remember to be ready."

"Wait a minute...you..." was all Billy could get in, before Kai left. Damn, that guy had some special tricks up his sleeve apparently, which well, was a good thing and a bad thing. He would have to find some way to get back at Kai for this one.

* * *

Author's Notes Part 2

1. Sorry for OOCness, there's definitely some this time...I think my Iori was way off...as is my King but that isn't so important. Plus the fact that Billy actually showed some maturity for once...LOL

2. Sorry, no more Iori's metal band in this story, though maybe in the semi-sequel. Still haven't decided whether or not I will write Streets of Southtown (which will pick up right after this one ends, but have different main characters)

3. A little explanation about the chaosfire - it's not really needed for the purposes of this story but will definitely be needed in the sequel, HMK2. So bear with me even if it does seem a bit contrived. If I ever finish writing HMK2, then all will be explained and you will see why it was necessary but that's a long wayoff...

4. Chaosfire - so it's fire, butnot like Kyo's, Iori's, K's, Ash's, Orochi Chris'sor even Kula's Ice power. These ones I term as gaseous. Chaosfire on the other hand is liquid fire, so it acts like a liquid and bubbles and boils and flows and drips, rather than being gaseous.It does not burn as much by heat but more by acid.

5. I'm playing up the whole Billy and Rock thing, because I think that it's actually got a whole heap of storyline potential. Wish I knew what happened in KOF:MI2 and if they actually met peacefully.

6. Also, this fic will soon go M-rated for torture which will occur later, so people need to remember to turn off the K-T ratingfilter ifyou want to find this fic.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Chapter 3 - Concert at the Bar

Location: King's Bar

That afternoon, a van pulled up outside the hotel and the band got out, with their equipment, and began to unpack their equipment in the stage area of the bar, this was a simple affair, without any pyrotechnics. Because of the short notice there weren't swarming mobs of fans around, but Miss King did say that a lot of people were coming tonight, which was good.

"Promise even if that guy walks in, you won't go crazy?" Kai asked, as they were unpacking the drums from the van.

"Yeah, even if he walks in, and anyway, if he does walk in, it'll be all the better, it will show him that my band is much better than his."

"Atta boy, that's the good way to think about it," he laughed. "I'll be watching anyway, and I'm sure Miss King would not like another bar fight, so she'll probably also be watching."

Kai had chosen to dress in a band t-shirt and jeans, since this was an unofficial concert, and essentially a private matter, the band had their concert clothes on, ready to play that night. The drums were lifted onto the stage, under Miss King's direction, Kai just made some last minute adjustments to the set.

Lights were put up, and the band's instruments were rewired through the house speaker system. One last quick rehearsal, and then the crowd started to filter in. Kai saw most of the people from last night come back, more people kept on coming through the door, as drinks were being served.

The bartender was busily serving drinks when King got up on the stage and introduced the band, the crowd started to cheer as the band began to play, the heavy rock music filled the air, people started jumping up and down to the beat of the drums. Billy's voice began to ring out throughout the bar, and spilled onto the streets.

As they finished the first song and launched into the second, the crowd began to cheer even more loudly, Kai sat at the bar, sipping a martini, watching for any signs of trouble. Even though there were bouncers outside the bar, and this was a ticket event, he would not put it past someone in this town to try to make trouble, especially those who controlled the underworld crime, or those with a personal grudge.

Sure enough, as the band launched into its third and last song, before an intermission, trouble struck, as the Meira brothers walked in with their entourage. Kai's dossier on them indicated that they were one of the major players in crime in Second Southtown, contending with Duke and also the Heinlein's to be the major crime player.

He saw the look that passed through King's face, as she became even more alert for trouble. Kai just stayed in his position, watching for any trouble.

They took a seat at one of the tables and began drinking cocktails ordered from the bar. At the end of the third song, the crowd began cheering. Kai carefully observed the faces of the Meira brothers, and then looked down to his PDA as be brought up the profiles that were sent from his source. What he didn't know was that within the crowd were both Duke's and Heinlein's people as well.

The band had finished playing, and came over to join Kai in having a round of drinks on the house before heading back to the hotel. Billy went over to say hi to Rock and Mary who had come to watch tonight, their entry free of charge as a gift from Billy.

The band left Southtown the following day, headed around USA touring, Billy extended an invitation to Rock, if anytime he wanted to visit England, he was welcome to stay with him and his sister.

* * *

Location: England various locales 

On tour for another week or so, Heavy Metal Kingz played to packed out stadia in another two cities before heading home to England. The songs to the second CD were beginning to be written, some by the band members, some Kai got outside composers and lyricists to write.

Arriving back at Heathrow airport, the band was mobbed by hordes of screaming female fans as they came out of the airport and headed home.

Billy got home not long after, entering, seeing the house was clean and tidy, however, Lilly was not home, "probably out with her boyfriend," Billy thought, as he dumped his stuff in his room, before going to check on the laundromat, "maybe Lilly's there already, working."

When Billy got to the laundromat he immediately saw that something was amiss, it was closed. Outside stood one of his employees, the shop locked up. "Mr Kane, something's wrong, when I came to work this morning the store was still locked, I thought Miss Lilly was opening the store this morning, so I went to your house and I knocked on the door but there was no one home either. So I've been standing outside here telling the customers that we're closed today. And as you can see there's some white note stuck under the door."

Billy was shocked, Lilly was late for work, "that stupid boyfriend of her's, she must have stayed overnight and he had gotten her into trouble," he said. He was going to kill that boy.

"Umm, sir, there's this note, I think something has happened to her," the employee answered.

Billy opened the door and picked up the note, opened it and read what was written, it confirmed his fears, Lilly had been taken by someone, even away from Southtown his past was catching up with him. And there was a photo, this one made him fume.

"Look after the store for me for a few days, there's something I have to do, and I'll give you a bonus afterwards," Billy said as he walked out to go home and get his weapons, and more importantly find his missing sister. He knew where he would start. He went away muttering about what he would do.

Kai sat in his office at the studios, listening to more new demo tapes, some good, some horrible, when his PDA buzzed, it was his sister, Kaia, sending a message along from within Intelligence, stating that one certain Lien Neville had entered England under an assumed name and that she was under surveillance by MI6 but classified as most dangerous.

He clicked the next button on his PDA. Also a report indicating that a missing persons report had been filed by one certain Mr Joe Higashi, regarding a Miss Lilly Kane, sister of Billy Kane, missing since this morning. Kai cussed, this smelt of trouble, someone was going out of their way to ruin his band. That was something that he would never allow. "Whoever this is, they're dead, and not just because Billy's going to kill them for kidnapping his sister. I'm going to vivisect them in the most painful way for daring to disrupt my band," he thought, as he read the message.

He hit the reply button and typed into his PDA, "Thanks for the heads up sis, I'll keep you posted." He picked up the desk phone and told his secretary, "cancel all appointments for the next week, band business has come up that requires all my time." He walked out of his office, with a dark look on his face, almost ready to murder, no that was too soft a word he thought, utterly annihilate in the most painful way possible the person who dared to threaten his band. Especially since they had one and a half weeks before they had to play at Wembley Stadium in front of a sold out crowd. There was no way they could cancel the concert.

He stalked out of the building and went to his car, sat down and started the engine, he raced out of the carpark and onto the street nearly crashing into a parked car outside the building. He drove quickly through the streets, as pulling in and out of lanes, running yellow lights until he reached home, he spun the wheel hard and turned into the driveway, when there was a screech of the brakes. He keyed off the engine and went in to change out of his suit.

Coming back out in a motorcycle jacket and jeans, he put on his helmet as his motorcycle zoomed out of his garage, into the street headed for Billy's house and the Laundromat, hoping to catch him before he did something stupid. The black motorbike zoomed through the streets of London, going at full pace, taking corners without slowing down, towards the Laundromat, in his old neighbourhood, where his own sister Kaia, now lived, when she wasn't away on intelligence missions.

Pulling up to the store, he parked roughly, the tyres screeching, he went up to the counter and asked the employee there, "Where's Billy," he asked, breathless from running to the counter.

"Who are you? And why should I tell you?" the employee asked, wanting to protect his employer.

"Look here, you little shit, I'm Billy's bands' manager, Kai, and you better tell me where he's gone before three or else," Kai snarled, impatient, he reached quickly into his pocket, "here's my card, look at it."

He forced the employee to look, "okay, okay, Mr Kai, Miss Lilly was kidnapped, and then Mr Billy left, and that's all I know," he replied, "you didn't have to be so rough."

Kai knew this already, he didn't need people like that for information, "Whatever," he said dismissing the hapless employee's objections; he had no time for complaints or delays. "Do you know where he might have gone," he asked.

"Probably to Joe's, to take out his frustration, he muttered something about killing him," the employee replied.

"And where may I find this Joe," Kai asked.

The employee supplied him with an address and added, "Mr Kai, Joe is Lilly's boyfriend; don't let them get into a fight," the employee uttered. Kai quickly ran out and revved up his motorcycle and zoomed off through the street, turning round the corner at speed, narrowly missing an old lady.

Meanwhile, Billy had already shown up at Joe's door, he didn't even bother knocking, he just kicked the door, hard, sending it flying into the room, "you're dead," he growled, as he strode in, ready to bludgeon anything. And sure enough he saw Joe, he charged at him, staff raised, ready to clobber him over the head. He just swung, taking the lamp off the table, it fell with a crash onto the floor, as glass sprayed out in a circular pattern.

Smash! the table in the middle of the room broke in two as Joe jumped backwards trying to avoid being hit. "Where is my sister?" he screamed, gutturally, "where is she, what have you done to her?"

The room was becoming littered with broken fragments of furniture when Joe decided he had to fight back. As Billy launched his staff at him, he jumped and kicked out, sending Billy across the room into the wall, Billy hitting the wall with a dull thud. That only served to make him angrier as he really let loose, swinging his staff wildly at Joe who had to dodge from the ferocity of the attack. Within such a confined space, Joe could not throw a hurricane upper without causing collateral damage to his own place and others, not that there was going to be anything left judging from the murderous look on Billy's face, and the range on the Rapid Punch was too small against the staff wielding Billy. He would have to rely on intuition and wait or his opening. Kai's motorcycle pulled up to the house and he ran through the open gate and saw that the door had been smashed in. He went inside and saw Billy and another man fighting. Billy was just swinging his staff around at the other man, who Kai assumed was Joe.

Kai went in and rushed towards Billy telling him to stop but Billy would not listen. Kai saw Joe dodge a staff swing that went wide and launch into a slash kick which connected and sent Billy flying away towards Kai. It was only then that Joe noticed Kai, "he's gone crazy." Kai just shrugged and rushed towards Joe, without a word, launching into a flurry of palms and fists, Joe was shocked, but managed to throw rapid punches in reply. The punches, fists and palms were a blur too fast for the human eye to follow, as Joe realised that Kai was no slouch. "That was for hitting Billy," Kai said as he extended his palm out, pushing Joe back lightly, "you were the one that filed the missing persons report on Lilly right?"

Meanwhile, Billy had rushed back and turned to swing his staff at Joe, but Kai blocked the blow, even though it would bruise and sting, "let me handle it," Kai said a the next staff swing came and he ducked and tackled Billy, sending him to the ground, the staff flying out of Billy's reach across the room. Joe went to pick it up, holding onto it, knowing that without his staff Billy could not fight well.

"Stop it, Billy, you aren't thinking straight," Kai said as he let go of Billy.

"Yes I am, look at this" he shouted back as he gave Kai the note he had from before. Kai picked it up, on it was a picture of Joe and Lilly having sex and a message, "if you want more, come to the warehouse at the pier tonight at midnight," it was signed "a friend". The picture, Kai could see was doctored, and he knew that Joe had filed a missing persons report and so was innocent of kidnapping.

"This picture is fake, photoshopped," Kai said as he gave the note back, "it was nothing but a ploy to get you to take Joe out, there's something a lot more sinister here then a simple kidnapping, I think."

"And anyway there's this," Kai showed Billy his PDA and the saved report of Joe's filing of the missing persons report with the police, "see it can't be him, but I want to know when he last saw her. Mr Higashi, tell me what happened, please."

"Last night, I said goodbye to Lilly as she went to deposit the day's takings. I was going to go see her this morning, and went to her house, but she was not there. I knocked on the door three times and even rang the doorbell, but there was no reply. I let myself in with the key she had given me, and looked around, but she was not there," Joe said.

"You better have not gone into my room," Billy interjected, still seething from being tricked, and at Joe anyway just for being Lilly's boyfriend, and the fact that she had given Joe keys without asking for permission.

"She wasn't there, so I went down to the laundromat and saw that it had not been opened up either, I knew something was wrong then, there was a note stuck under the dor on the inside, but I could not open it, so I went straight to the police. That's all."

"Okay, I think your story checks out, you had better have had nothing to do with it though, or else," Kai warned him, knowing that it was probably not needed.

"Hey, I like Lilly, a lot, I would never do anything to hurt her." Joe said.

"Billy, does the name Lien Neville sound familiar to you," Kai asked, "She's entered the country apparently under a false name." He showed Billy the picture on his PDA. On it was a picture of a blonde woman, with big breasts, but short.

"That's the assassin," Billy replied, after seeing the picture, "she tried to kill me a while ago, I almost had her dead before Rock showed up." He turned back to face Kai, handing the PDA back, "Was she the one that took Lilly?" Billy asked.

"I don't know but I plan on finding her to find out, after all she has prime suspect all painted over her," Kai said, before turning to Joe, "I think that you should stay out of this, it's personal."

"No way, I'm coming, Lilly's important to me," Joe replied indignantly.

"No, you can't, from what I know of you, you seem to be the nice good guy, you would balk at what we would do to get Lilly back," Kai said. "And anyway I'm not sure that I could keep Billy from killing you at any time, just because you are dating his sister."

"You..., hey that's unfair, though you are right," Billy replied, chagrined, annoyed at Kai's insinuations, "about him balking," pointing at Joe. "He's spent too much time being a sidekick to a hero," emphasising the word sidekick.

"Me and Billy will do things our way to get Lilly back. Just don't interfere, I want you to make sure that if anything else comes then forward it to me." Kai said, as he gave Joe his PDA number.

* * *

Author's Notes 

1. Thanks for reviewing again guys. Your suggestions and comments are really helpful

2. Now we are back in England...and Lilly's been kidnapped, don't worry, some of our cast from Southtown will be making another appearance soon. But you'll have to read to find out.

3. What will happen tonight at midnight?

4. Anyway, this is where I need your help - now the sequel is being written...in which there will be another KOF tournament, except I am having a little trouble working out the teams...so far for HMK2 these are the proposed teams:

Ash team - Ash, Shen Woo, Elisabeth Blantorche

HMK team - Rock, Billy, Kai

Kyo Iori team - Kyo, Iori, Shingo

K' team - K', Kula, Maxima

Fatal Fury - Terry, Andy, Joe

Korea Team - Kim, Choi, Chang

Alba team (Anti-Ash team) - Alba, Oswald, Duo Lon

Kyokugenryu team - Ryo, Robert, Yuri

ADDES team - Soiree (brainwashed), Nagase, Duke (brain controlled and bodily enhanced)

Neo Psycho Soldiers - Momoko, Kensou, Athena

Ikari Warriors - Whip, Ralf, Clark

Women's team (all Wives to be as well)- King, Mai, Blue Mary

Anti- Kyokugenryu team- Malin, Kasumi, Eiji

Outlaw team- Lin, Ron, Ryuji

Benimaru tteam - Benimaru, Goro, Seth

Garouteam - B Jenet, Gato, Tizoc

Please comment and point out where I can make useful changes


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Chapter 4 - Assassin's End

Location: Warehouse by the Pier in London

It was a clear night, almost midnight, when Kai and Billy turned up to the warehouse by the pier, to see what this mysterious "friend" who was most likely not a friend, would come. The warehouse was on the outside was plain, with a window above the big roller door. Billy and Kai both surveyed the scene, looking around for anything that should not be there. As Kai looked at the roof of the warehouse next door, he spied a flash of movement, quick but not missed.

"Watch out, there's someone here," Kai said, as they continued to walk towards the warehouse. He kept his eyes trained for movements on the rooves of the warehouses as Billy kept a lookout on the ground level. Billy pulled him down, as a shot rang into the ground above their heads. They split up and sought the cover of the building,

"Assassin, right?" Billy asked when they were inside.

"Yeah, and a good one at that, but I think she'll show herself soon," Kai said. "I'm going to keep her attention, you sneak behind her and take her out, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll give her a beating that she won't forget." Billy replied.

"Let's go," Kai said, as they split up to look for the assassin.

Sneaking outside, Kai opened the door carefully, a shot pinged into the ground right near him, he closed the door and opened it again after a while, this time no shot pinged, picking up a loose pebble he threw it out and another shot, this time it hit the pebble square on. What to do he thought, send a Chaos Shot at the assassin, or go another way?

Kai decided to just delay as much as possible, picking up another few pebbles he opened the door again, this time there was no shot for a long while, he stuck his head outside, the assassin had moved, that was until she dropped down on him intent on slashing him with her knife. He blocked a fatal blow, but it opened up a slash on his left arm and his blood ran red, dripping onto the ground.

"You're dead," he said, as he launched a Chaosfire shot at the enemy, who jumped away, backflipping neatly.

"You want to come down here, or should I come up?" Kai taunted. Suddenly, a blue laser came down from the sky blasting towards Kai.

Meanwhile, Billy had snuck around the other side of the warehouse and had begun climbing onto the roof of the nearby building to find the assassin, when he was set upon by a few thugs, with baseball bats and knives. Taking out his staff and snapping it into position, he smiled, as he moved swiftly, knocking out one with a blow to the head, splitting the staff sending one end snaking round to hit another, whipping the staff over his head, sending the next thug flying with jab of one end. Then a blue laser shot out of the sky, confirming what he had suspected, she had been hired to finish the job, for some reason, now they had decided to finish what they had started. He promptly knocked out the other thugs and jumped onto the next rooftop towards the assassin, Lien Neville, who he had a score to settle with.

Kai noticed the blue laser coming down at him and then his features began to melt away, as his body rearranged itself into the features of Mai Shuranui, jumping off one of the walls avoiding the laser blast by copying her ninja skills, then pushing off the other wall to reach the roof where the assassin was. Mai's features then melted away and were replaced by Kai's once more, as he dusted himself off. (A/N: And the clothes change as well) "Neat trick there, wasn't it," he said, as he saw the female assassin's shocked face, which quickly recovered, "But now you've seen it...you really should have come down." He launched into an attack, his signature flurry of palms and fists, lightning quick, forcing her to block desperately in order to keep up. Kai was grinning the whole time, as he upped his speed, landing blows now, as he summoned chaosfire to his hands, "Can't you feel the fire eating away at you, missy," he taunted again, as he sent his fist straight into her chest. He jumped over a kick aimed at his ankles, "tut-tut, that's too easy to dodge," he stated as he launched into a graceful flip using her shoulder to land behind her and begin his attack again, keeping her on the back foot, blocking his flurry of attacks.

In fact, she was so occupied with blocking Kai's flurry that she did not notice until it was too late, Billy's staff heading straight for her head, a crowning blow. Kai stood there and smirked as the staff came crashing onto her head, knocking her out. "Good one," he said, congratulating Billy on a perfectly executed plan.

"Yeah, though I would have liked to rough her up a bit more," Billy replied, "the thugs didn't really put up much of a fight."

"Don't worry, you'll have plenty of chance to do that," Kai said, picking the now knocked out assassin up.

"What are you doing," Billy asked.

"Well, she knows something, we're going to interrogate her," Kai replied, stressing the last part and punctuating it with a wink, "by the time we're done with her, we'll know everything there is to know. And then I think I'm going to dispose of her." Kai adjusted his clothes which had creased while he was fighting, as they walked out of the pier, driving to another place.

* * *

Location - London - Kaia Mellion's terrace house

Kai and Billy arrived at an ubiquitous looking terrace-house, one that had belonged to Kai, but now belonged to his sister, Kaia, having passed the laundromat on the way. He opened the door, "she's out tonight, so we should be free, and anyway, if she comes home, she would approve, she'd probably take over, she's much more efficient at it," Kai said, as he sat the still unconscious and now trussed up Lien on a chair.

Inside was well, a lot of high-tech gadgets and devices, Billy looked around at the stuff, the room was tiled like a medical facility, but the couch and other things had been cleared away from this spare room. Now there was only Lien, trussed up in a chair, still out, a rack of gadgets, Kai and Billy. Kai reached for a taser on the rack and handed it to Billy, "would you like to do the honours?" he asked, handing Billy the taser, indicating that he should zap Lien.

"Of course," Billy grinned, holding the taser up to Lien's back he pressed the discharge trigger, sending a bolt of electricity up Lien's spine, causing her to contort and stiffen, and then relax.

"Oh well, that didn't wake her up did it now, but wasn't it fun?" Kai asked, as he sauntered around slowly to face Lien. His hand whipped out quickly, "crack" right across her face, leaving a red imprint in the cheek. Still she did not wake up.

"whoops, you must have gone too hard on her back at the warehouse," Kai said, laughing, "pass down that knife please, from the table."

He received the knife from Billy, who was watching this for the sheer kicks he was getting out of watching her suffer. Kai went around the back and yanked her hear, chopping it, hacking it off with the knife,

"Don't you think she looks much better now," he said, as the gold blonde hair fell to the ground. Both of them were laughing now, "just get on with it," Billy said, impatient because he was worried about his sister.

"Alright, Kai said, as he took another instrument from the table, this one a curved blade, as he went and put smelling salts under her nose, causing her to jerk up, awake. He could see the panic in her eyes so he smiled, "nice to see you up now, Miss Neville, you are here, at her majesty's pleasure," using the phrase that Kaia used when she interrogated people.

He could see her struggle against the rope, "don't struggle, it's unbecoming for a lady," Kai said, sighing. "All we want is information on who put you up to this?" He saw her struggle a bit more. Billy now walked into her view, "remember me, last time you tried to kill me, I think I should return the favour, now tell me who sent you. And where is my sister?"

Billy saw that she didn't answer, so Kai went to the cupboard and brought out a syringe and a little bottle of liquid, filled the syringe and pricked it into her arm, pushing the liquid into her bloodstream.

"Now why don't you tell us who sent you? And where is Lilly?" Kai asked, calmly, waiting for the drug to take its effects. He brought out the implement with the curved blade, "it would really hurt me to have to resort to sterner measures."

No answer, so Kai asked Billy to zap her with the taser, which he did, sending electricity through her body, not enough to knock her out, but enough to make sure she felt the pain. Kai lit one fingertip with chaosfire, as he put it to the implement, heating the curved blade until it was red. He moved closer to her, holding the blade near her cheek, "now would you tell me everything," no answer again, so he pushed the blade into her cheek causing blood to come out which fizzled as the wound cauterized because of the heat. The scream could not be heard past the sound proofed walls.

"I suppose you want more of this, don't you?" Kai asked, as Billy smashed his fist into her nose, breaking it causing it to bleed profusely. Kai applied the flat of the hot knife, causing cauterisation of the wounds. "The next time, I'll stab somewhere where it will really hurt." He could see the look of worry and fear pass through her eyes, they were slowly breaking her, "now if you tell us everything, I think I could stop this," Kai said, in total control of the situation.

No answer, the taser was applied again, causing her body to jerk again, and then relax again, after the shock had passed through, "it doesn't have to be this way, you know," Kai said, as he pressed the hot instrument into her chest this time, searing a long scar across her right breast. Another scream, again absorbed by the walls.

"really you should tell us everything you know, I really don't want to hurt you anymore," Kai stated, keeping his face straight. He took another instrument from the table, this time a straight surgical knife, "this one will hurt even more, if need be."

"Now tell us what you know," Billy said, "before he has to hurt you some more." Kai saw signs of the woman begin to crack under the pressure, perhaps because the drugs were now taking full effect, her eyes glazing over.

"What is you name?" Kai asked, as a test question, "I'll spare you some pain if you answer," his voice said suggesting that this would be true.

"Lien," the woman replied, confirming what they already knew. Time for another test question, this time Billy asked, "did you try to kill me a while back,"

"Yes, but Rock Howard saved me," she said, droning. Kai kept his face straight as that factoid came out, that one he hadn't known.

"Now, who paid you to kill us," Kai asked.

"Duke, I work for him trying to infiltrate ADDES until this job came up, payment was going to be made in person at Manchester at Old Trafford, at 3am tomorrow night, the body was to be disposed of, all other communications were by phone and he disguised his voice just in case anyone was listening in."

They had struck the right information; they were going to catch whoever sent that assassin at Old Trafford, Manchester. "Thank you," Kai said, "you've been most helpful,"

"Don't worry, when my sister gets back, she'll do what she has to do to get the body disposed of," Kai said, "they have Cleaners, she can get rid of any trace of DNA, blood or anything, and anyway, she's allowed to do this sort of stuff by the Government, she's probably already filed a dossier on her with the info that I'll give her from this interrogation."

Billy left the room through a second door, to clean up all the blood splatters and other dirt, leaving Kai alone in the room with Lien. Relief played through her eyes, Kai laughed, "don't be so relieved, well actually do, because this is going to be over soon." His hands began to glow with chaosfire, but this time a bright white flame as his hands began enclosed around her head, stabbing through her head, a large hole on one side a small hole with one finger on the other, mimicking a magnum wound from close range. The end of an interrogation would of international criminals like this would usually end with a bullet to the head. Kai went out by the second door, cleaned up and then rejoined Billy in the living room, both of them in medical overalls, as their clothes went through the wash process.

"Don't worry, as soon as the clothes are done, we can do what it takes to get her back." They discussed what they had learnt, some very interesting facts, especially that they had taken the contract off Rock, after he seemed to be not loyal to Geese. So it did confirm their suspicions, someone wanted to hurt everyone who had been associated with Geese Howard. Kai typed out a message on his PDA and sent it off encrypted to his sister, explaining everything.

"Last time, you promised me that you would tell me a little of your history," Billy said, as they waited. "and you dodged the question, this time, you have to answer."

"Alright, but some of this is going to be pretty whacked out," Kai replied as he began, "The chaosfire, that's the green stuff, is actually a gift I've had since birth, my father and mother were both experts in martial arts, living in seclusion almost, after they had retired, when they raised me and my sister, but my father was my teacher, my mother taught my sister. MY father's style was one of chaos, and attack, being unpredictable, spinning wildly in and out of attack range, disrupting strategy," he took a breathe as he continued,

"My sister, fights a totally different style that my mother taught her. It was all pretty funny though, mother and father never fought, but we fought a few times, like kids always did, I usually did lose though, her way was methodical, just content to let me play around, until she saw an opening an executed a ruthless riposte."

"So I left home at eighteen to find my way in the world, and I ended up working in the music industry, started managing some bands, a couple were successful, some not. But I was good at it. That's really all there is to it." But he did leave out the other part of his training, the one which allowed him to melt his features and morph. He was going to pretend to be Lien tomorrow night and hopefully lure out the real enemy.

The light over the door indicated that Billy's clothes were done, "you better go and get your clothes, we'll talk about this again later, after you come back out."

Billy went inside and retrieved his blue jacket, red and white bandana, t-shirt, blue jeans and underclothes and staff and belt along with his boots, as he dumped the medical overalls into the bin to be incinerated, he came back out through the door.

"So, continue," Billy said, as he sat back down, as they waited for Kai's clothes to finish being decontaminated.

"Well, there was one other thing my father taught me, that's going to help us tomorrow. I think I should just demonstrate," Kai said, as his features and body began to morph, changing into a picture perfect copy of Lien, he changed back, quickly, "so the guy won't know the difference until it is too late." He saw Billy's shocked face, "don't use it often, and I don't let anyone else know but you and my sis."

The light again lit up, as Kai went in to retrieve his black t-shirt, black jeans and red windbreaker and underclothes and his shoes. He came back out changed, having incinerated the medical overalls they had worn.

Kai yawned, "I'm tired, I'm sure sis won't mind us bumming over here tonight, unless you want to go home." Kai flicked a knob, having just remembered to keep the interrogation chamber cold to prevent decay, while the room could keep out noise it could not prevent smell from escaping.

Billy was tired as well, so they both fell asleep, one on each couch in the living room.

* * *

Author's Notes 

1. Once again thank you to the reviewers. Special thanks to LegendarySuperNamek for his great suggestions. But you'll see why I couldn't use one of them

2. If you think that this is too graphic, please send me a PM here, or post in the review that it is and I will up the rating to M

3. I suppose that you should have worked out Kai Mellion is a play on the word chameleon. So somewhere in the past he has met and touched Mai. The power is however of limited use, (probably only one move). But yes, this does introduce even more unpredictability to his fighting.

4. Revised list of teams:

Ash team - Ash, Ron, Elisabeth

HMK team - Rock, Billy, Kai

Sacred Treasures/Kyo Iori team - Kyo, Iori, Shingo

K' team - K', Kula, Maxima

Fatal Fury - Terry, Andy, Joe

Korea Team - Kim, Choi, Chang

Alba team (anti-Ash team) - Alba, Luise, Chae Lim or Mignon Beart

Kyokugen team - Ryo, Robert, Yuri

ADDES team - Soiree (brainwashed), Nagase, Duke (he's going to be brain controlled and have implants in his body I think)

Neo Psycho Soldiers - Duo Lon, Sie Kensou, Athena

Ikari Warriors - Leona, Ralf, Clark

Women's (wives to be) team - King, Mai, Mary

Anti- Kyokugen - Malin, Kasumi, Eiji

Outlaw - Ryuji, Lin, Gato

Benimaru team - Benimaru, Oswald, Seth

MOTW team - B Jenet, Hotaru, Tizoc

5. I'm also going to have round robins like the World Cup Soccer (probably four groups of four)...like this I think

Group A - Ash team, Ikari Warriors, Benimaru Team, Korea Team

GroupB - ADDES team, Kyokugen, Anti-Kyokugen, K' team

Group C -Outlaw team, MOTW, Anti-Ash team, Neo Psycho Soldiers

GroupD - HMK team, Fatal Fury Team, Women's team, Kyo/Iori team

Again, comments would be most appreciated.

6. I was almost tempted to have a Ryo, Terry, Andy team versus a King, Mary, Mai team. LOL...maybe I'll do that in another story, or someone else write it.

7. And yes, next chapter Kaia will make her first appearance. And some wacky things will ensue.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Chapter 5 - Showdown with the Gunners.

Next morning, Kaia opened the door, having just got back from a mission, when she entered she saw her brother and Billy sleeping on the couches in her living room. She let out a sigh and thought, "why? I know that bro likes to come visit, and use my house to have people over, but still." She walked over to Kai, and shook his shoulders, "wake up, sleepy," she said.

"uhhhh," Kai stretched, as he opened his eyes, "Hey sis,"

"Who's that over there," she asked, pointing to Billy, whose face was facing away from her.

"Haha, have you been living under a rock or something, look closer, recognise the clothes," Kai said, now a bit more awake.

Kaia looked across at the other couch, as Billy turned around, Kaia saw his face, "Oh my God, is it really him?"

"Yes it is, sis, it's the frontman of your favourite band, maybe you can meet him at last, since you are on mission every other time." Another idea formed inside Kai's head, "Actually, I dare you to go kiss him to wake him up," (A/n: Sorry, I must have been smoking something here, but run with it) "Oh and I used the chamber last night, need the Cleaners to come in."

She sighed heavily, "hah, always need my Cleaners don't you?" (A/N: Cleaners body disposers belonging to the Government - for those assassins and spies whose bodies they never want to be found)

"It's that assassin that you sent me the info on, she's inside, a magnum shot to her head finished her off after a bit of drug and tasering and knifing," Kai replied.

"I read your report, on the way home, it will be cleaned up. So what's happened with his sister," she asked, pointing to Billy, still peacefully asleep on the couch, unaware.

"Well, I'm not telling you until you carry out the dare," Kai replied, folding his arms, now that he had sat up on the couch.

So, Kaia crept up to Billy softly, and went to kiss him awake on the cheek. Unfortunately for her, at the last moment he turned and instead she caught him right on the lips. Billy's eyes popped open instantly shocked but he couldn't turn his face away, Kaia also stood there dead still, Kai just laughed, loudly, as they stood there transfixed.

"Good morning," Kai said, the words breaking Kaia and Billy out of their kiss. He was laughing in between each word. Billy's face had turned red, as he sat up, Kaia just marched over to Kai and gave him a whack over the head with an open palm.

"What?" he asked, giving Kaia a stupid look.

"That was for your stupidity, brother."

"Still it was funny," Kai said, turning towards Billy, "sorry, that was a joke, a dare. We do this sometimes. I don't think she meant to kiss you on the lips."

Billy was hiding the fact that he actually had enjoyed being woken up by a kiss, but of course, in the past, a woman involved with him was likely to end up dead and now, well she may still end up dead, especially if what happened to Lilly would happen to her.

"You bastard," Billy said, to cover that fact up, "I still owe you for those tricks you've pulled."

"Yeah he is," Kaia added, "sorry about that." Of course, she was hiding her crush that she had on Billy and the fact that she had liked kissing him, a lot.

"Hey, don't pick on me, it was only a dare and it wasn't my fault that you ended up lip-locking." Kai said, smirking, "We're going to Manchester tonight, I'm going to trick the hirer. Don't worry sis, he knows."

"We're going to get breakfast and then go, remember to clean up, I'll visit again soon," Kai said, as he got up off the couch and went to the bath room, leaving Kaia and Billy alone in the lounge.

There was an awkward silence between them, as they couldn't look at each other, blushing red still on their cheeks. Kaia broke the silence, "Sorry for that surprise," she said.

"Yeah," was all Billy could say, he looked at her, finally their eyes meeting. Red appeared again on both of their faces, as Kai secretly watched through the crack in the bathroom door. He was laughing inside his mind, as he went to spit out in the sink. He went back to looking again through the crack in the door.

Back in the lounge again, a nervous silence continued between Kaia and Billy. It continued for some time, until Kai came out of the bathroom, and told Billy to go clean himself up.

Turning to Kaia, after Billy was gone, "Sis, we have to go now, to Manchester, after Billy's done, we're going, to Old Trafford, I want to scope the place during the day."

Turning to other matters Kai continued, "Well, you did tell him that you liked him right," he said, in a whisper that would not carry to the bathroom. He cracked a smile.

"Of course not, not after the awkward way we started," Kaia said, she laughed nervously.

"He likes you, I reckon," Kai said, laughing.

"Now you are pulling my leg," Kaia replied, "the information was very useful. And that trash you left in the chamber, it'll be gone and you won't have to hear about it."

Billy came back out of the bathroom. "Well goodbye, sis, see you again." Kai said, as he left the terrace with Billy, headed towards Manchester, and the person who held Lilly.

"Goodbye, Miss Mellion. See you again," Billy said, as he left.

"See you again soon, Mr Kane," Kaia replied. The door closed as they left. "Now let's see what mess that they went and made, she said, as she looked inside the chamber

She saw the dead body, mangled, "Kai, this is so messy, as always," he had always been the messy child, she sighed, "What a mess," she sighed again, beginning the undo the straps around the body, taking it onto the floor, and then wrapping it in plastic sheet, ready to take to the Cleaners.

Location: Old Trafford, Manchester

The car pulled into the city of Manchester, into the hotel, where Kai had registered under Lien's name, under her assumed name when she had entered the country. Parking the car with the valet, Kai morphing as Lien walked out of the hotel into an alley and morphed back into himself again. Coming out of the alley, he swung his red windbreaker over his shoulder and walked out down two blocks.

He was rejoined by Billy who had just walked out of a pastry shop, holding a pastry, munching on it. They walked towards Old Trafford without acknowledging each other, splitting up at the gate walking around the stadium. Meeting again, at the other side, they decided to walk into the front and look inside the building, walking around the buildings in Old Trafford, but not passing the gate.

Luckily today wasn't a training day, so people could walk around freely. Billy went into the field area and scoped out the place, whilst Kai looked through the boxes. It would have to wait till tonight, as Kai left first, and went to a nearby cafe, where he was joined by Billy. Both of them wore plain clothes, tonight would be the time to wear the hunting gear. They retired to another hotel room, in another hotel, this one booked under another alias.

Once inside, they began to discuss their plans for tonight. "There's not many spaces to hide, but there could be snipers on the roof with a clear shot," Billy said.

"They could also hide people in the boxes, you're going to have to prowl their early take out any snipers he's going to have," Kai replied, "He probably won't be expecting Lien to walk in without anything else so he'll probably be a bit complacent when he sees me." They went through the rest of the plans that they needed to execute to get Lilly back and catch the guy who had sent assassins after them.

At 2:00 am in the morning, Billy headed out of the hotel in his red and white bandana, with blue leather jeans and jacket, headed towards Old Trafford. Kai had already left before then, as Lien from the other hotel. Kai, as Lien now walked towards Old Trafford, through the night entering through the gate, he walked towards the centre of the field where there was a silhouette of a man, hopefully the payer that Kai was looking for.

Kai, as Lien walked towards the middle, there was a man there, his black silhouette, a big one, Kai walked up to him, expecting anything.

Meanwhile, Billy had actually been skulking through the roof, taking out two snipers on the roof, and another three in the box and was making his way down to the stadium through the seats, the stadium lights flashed on, illuminating the middle of the ground, Kai saw the man opposite him, "the money please," he said, with Lien's voice. The man made no movement, "expecting something? The money now!" Kai repeated himself in Lien's voice again. The man showed no signs of moving. Kai walked towards the man, waiting for a response.

He saw the small briefcase in the man's hand, "expecting the snipers on the roof and in the boxes? Don't think that they weren't already taken out." he said. THe man let go of the briefcase and clapped and now he spoke, "Take the briefcase."

"No, I want you to open it, first, and show me the money," Kai said, playing along, hopefully doing what she would have done. The man smirked and then opened the briefcase and whipped out a gun, and was about to shoot, when Billy ambushed him with a crowning blow to the head, causing the man to drop the gun to block, as Lien's features melted away, to become Kai's. "Surprise," Kai said, "you won't escape,"

Kai and Billy both went to attack, when Kai noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of his right eye, before being slammed into the ground. There was a second one, he looked up and saw that it was Iori. "You're the kidnapper?" Kai said, shocked, not thinking that someone like that would stoop so low.

"Nope, I'm just here to fight you and kill you," Iori replied, as Kai threw him off, both of them getting into ready stances.

Meanwhile, Billy was fighting the man who had the briefcase who he suspected was Duke, since the fighting style matched up and because of the information provided during the interrogation. He was desperately throwing blows, as the other man blocked, and returned the blows with interest, causing Billy to have to block furiously. He lashed out with his staff, flipping the mask on the other man's face off, confirming what the dead assassin had said; it was Duke, a long-time rival of the Howard connection, one who had a personal vendetta against anything to do with Geese. "So, it's you, you maniac, where is she?" Billy demanded as he launched another attack only to be blocked.

Duke just laughed, "You'll find her, sometime, or maybe not," he added, "I had a suspicion that the assassin wouldn't be enough, after that performance in Southtown, but if she did it, it would have been a nice easy win for me." Apparently, Duke had had some of his cronies at the bar, on the first night at King's bar, who had reported everything to their boss.

Back with Kai and Iori, they were both launching furious assaults at each other, fists flying at breakneck pace in one direction, clawing attacks in the other. Kai was having a hard time getting through Iori's defence, knowing that last time he had caught him by surprise, "this guy fights by instinct not strategy," Kai thought, as he launched into another flurry of fists and palm strikes, continuing to be blocked. "I have to up the ante," Kai thought, summoning the green chaosfire to envelop his hands, increasing the speed and power of his strikes. He leapt out of attack range as Iori began to counter his attack, seeing a small opening, he launched into a Chaos Scythe, bringing his leg crashing down, but he was blocked, and then sent flying by a well timed oniyaki. He landed with a thud in the grass, and then flipped up and threw a chaosfire shot at Iori, who jumped over it and rushed in for another attack.

Billy ducked a blow from Duke, and then lifted the end of his staff, connecting with Duke's jaw, following it up with a blow to the stomach while flipping the staff around. He ducked another fist, and a high roundhouse kick, jabbing again with his staff, again scoring a blow. Separating his staff into 3 he launched the staff at Duke's neck, extending it as Duke reeled back off balance. Billy leapt up into the air, just as Kai turned around, having noticed that Duke had reeled backwards into striking distance, he turned around and hit a strong backwards fist into the back of Duke's head, then flipping over the back of Duke, away from Iori's attack, extending with a beautiful two footed kick which sent Duke hurtling towards the incoming Iori, who just batted him aside, but was too late to block Billy's Flying Cane Smash attack, taking a blow on the head.

"Leave him, the other one is the important one, he was just paid to kill us," Kai said.

They turned around to see Duke running away, and Billy and Kai set off in pursuit, but to no avail, a motorbike sped off quickly into the night. When they returned through the gate to the middle of the stadium, Iori had gone. Only tufts of disturbed grass showed any signs of there being a fight.

"The kidnapper is Duke, an old enemy of my ex-boss," Billy said, "he's based in Southtown."

"I suppose then we'll have to go back and shakedown his men then," Kai replied, "that's probably where they would be holding her."

Billy went back to his hotel room, and Kai to his own, the one that he had registered as Lien, paid the bill next morning and headed back to London, to head for Southtown once more.

Location: Southtown - various locales

Having endured the long plane-ride to another city and then a drive into Southtown, Billy and Kai were patiently waiting as the taxi pulled up to the hotel where they had registered under false names. Being heavily disguised hopefully would prevent Duke's men from knowing that they were here, but Kai didn't count on that disguise lasting very long. Sooner or later, someone would find out and once one of the three crime bosses found out, all of them would know soon enough.

Once in the hotel room, the began to plan the way they would break in and rescue Lilly from the clutches of Duke. Night came, as they exited the hotel through the fire escape, taking care not to be noticed. Billy wore his usual bandana, jeans and denim jacket and a blue t-shirt, his staff folded and tucked into the jacket pocket. Kai jumped down to the street a minute later, dressed in his black t-shirt, jeans, reversing his red windbreaker, this time showing black, perfect for hiding in the night.

Skulking through Southtown at night was fraught with danger, especially as they headed towards the precinct controlled by Duke. They were passing through Meira territory to get there though. That was relatively safer, as the Meira's usually kept their thugs on a tight leash, but in Duke's precinct, it was a bit more of a free for all. Keeping to the darkness, Billy and Kai made their way down opposite sides of the street, towards the warehouse that Duke was supposedly keeping Lilly in. It was ubiquitous, no one would have thought it was housing a crime boss and a hostage, but that was where the word around town said it was.

Billy hung back, as Kai morphed and made a round around the warehouse, "Well this is it," Kai said, as he got back to Billy's position, "we're going to bust in, security looks pretty tight, but I think we could handle it." They went, running quickly towards the front of the warehouse, and sure enough there was a welcoming committee, of thugs. Billy's eyes lit up as he unwound his staff, and licked his lips, ready, no itching for the fight.

The thugs surrounded Kai and Billy, as they stood back to back, waiting, or not, as Billy launched a Sansetsu Kon Chuudan Uchi at one of the thugs, the two on either side of him closed in, as the staff withdrew again, Billy planting his boot into the face of one of the incoming thugs, and whacking the other with a stick. Kai waited as the three thugs charged at him, he launched a Chaosfire Shot at one, and then blocking a bat with his left arm, and then kicking out at the third. The three thugs that Kai was facing got up again, as Kai jumped and kicked out at one, catching him square on, in the chest pushing him back, the other two hung back, wary, poking out with their knives.

Billy launched another Sansetsu Kon Chuudan at another of the thugs, this time adding an explosive ending to it, sending the thug sprawling into the wall, 'two to go', he used his staff to block a knife blow incoming at his thigh, and then whipped the staff around to hit his other attacker, following it up with a another staff blow ending with a overhead blow, knocking the thug senseless to the ground. The third thug ran, scared, after dropping his weapon.

Gotta do this quickly, Kai thought, as he summoned chaosfire to his hands, and threw a shot at one, rewarded with a hit, and dodging just in time such that the second blade only grazed his arm. He quickly grabbed the thug's wrist as it withdrew and knocked the knife out of his hand with his knee, sending it flying away. He followed up with a Chaos Upper, catching the thug's jaw, a loud clicking sound heard, as the jaw was broken.

Kai turned around and saw that Billy had dealt with the other thugs, they turned and ran towards the back room, smashing the door in. Inside was nothing but a plain wooden desk, with a small white note on it. Billy looked around the room for anything suspicious, as Kai went up and retrieved the note. The note said See You At Wembley.

Kai smashed his fist into the table, "look at this," he said, passing the note to Billy, who read the note, and turned pale. "He's obviously implying that something's going to go down at the Concert in a week's time.

"Damn," Billy swore as he put the note down, "this is bad, what are we going to do."

"He's playing a game, with us, looks like we'll have to see him at Wembley then," Kai replied, "though I don't like this one bit. And I obviously don't want to scare him away, though I don't think Duke is a man that is easily scared, but having too many personnel there might be bad."

Kai and Billy left the building, setting the warehouse on fire, for spite. Tommorrow they would have to return to London, and wait most of a week, before Lilly would reappear at Wembley, hopefully safe.

* * *

Author's Notes 

1. Another update on the sequel: I've already written the prologue and the last bit of the end already, now to fill in the middle. :). So I know exactly how the story is going to go.

2. If someone could descibe to me Billy's leader desperation move in KOF 2003 that would be very much appreciated. I am in the process of rewriting desperationmoves for characters but haven't played2K3. I'm probably going with something like this now:

Billy's Super (2 power bar)DM - Grand Kane Smash

Charging stick jab (invincible during this) into "Water Dragon Chaser" into a uppercut (like crouching C),into three somersaulting flaming dai senpuu, slam into ground on last with flames (like his HSDM in 2K2), and then opponent's body bounces, Billy swings his staff which is on fire (except for the bit where he's holding it) two hands at the end sending flaming opponent flying to the "moon" (or other end of the arena) - like a baseball swing. I thought the last bit would be most fun.

Here's Kai's proposed 2 bar super while we are at it:

Grand Chaos Charge - Invincible rush into a series of fists and palms and strikes (of which the last blow stuns) into a chaos fireball flurry (last fireball stuns/dizzies - this part was borrowed from a hidden super move in one of the DBZ games) into a charging chaos uppercut into a chaos scythe smashing opponent into ground with corresponding big explosion.

3.I'll keep the tag system though, but I'm thinking of making it random how the teams fight. Can fight classic style (being the five rounds no tagging style from 2K2), 3v3 tag style (from 2K3), 2v2 tag style with a striker, 2v2 at once with striker, 3v3 at once, 3 separate matches (no striker) winner is the team that wins 2.

4. Only 2 more chapters to go until the end unfortunately. But then there's the sequel which should be much longer.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Chapter 6 - Concerto Showdown

Location: Wembley Stadium England

The next week was a nervous time, for Billy, Kai and the rest of the band, they had a sold out Concert at Wembley Stadium, and for Billy, it was worse, having to wait. Kai had updated both Kaia and Joe on the situation, and both had agreed to come to the concert to help out, just in case. Billy paced nervously around the morning of the concert, as they began to set up the instruments, wondering if Lilly and Duke were going to show up. See You At Wembley, the note had said, he worried and it was beginning to show and affect the other band members. Kai took Billy aside and said, "Don't worry about it, he'll show himself."

"Uhh...right," Billy answered, still nervous. The moving trucks began to set up the stage in the middle of the pitch

"Look, if you really need to, I'll spar with you so you can release some of your frustration," Kai said, "And I won't hit back."

"No thanks," Billy replied, "I'd probably go too hard, it's really not good waiting, it's getting annoying."

"Of course it is," Kai replied, "I'm pretty much waiting too like this, all of us are worried, but we have to wait."

The band continued to get ready, though Billy's nerves were fraying, out of worry for his sister, his only relative left. The hours ticked down as the countdown to the concert began. The crowd began filing in, the cloudy night sky was dark, hiding the moonlight, the band began to run through their last warm ups. Billy got ready with his signature guitar, strummed out a few chords, cursing his nervousness, as he missed one, noticed by all the other band members, and Kai who reassured him that between, Joe, Kaia and himself, everything would be fine, and that he needed to concentrate and be patient.

The concert was about to begin to a packed out stadium which was chanting loudly. The spotlight shone down on the middle of the ground, as the band made its entrance, but then the pyro's abruptly stopped, as the spotlight pointed up at the roof, from there suspended by a rope was a girl. the rope was slowly but surely fraying. All the fans were shocked at this. Billy ran off the stage as quick as he could, jumped the barrier, and running up towards Lilly, on top of the roof he saw Duke, he between him and his sister.

Kaia, Joe and Kai all saw as well and ran towards the place where Lilly was going to fall, if the rope broke. Joe got into position to catch his falling angel, just in case. Kaia ran upwards to the top of the stadium, whilst the band told everyone not to panic. The fans were all taking pictures of Lilly hanging there by a rope. Kai ran out of the stadium and went to get a large tarpaulin sheet, hoping that everyone would help out and catch Lilly if she fell. Kaia reached the roof, and already saw Billy and Duke fighting it out. Billy threw a Tri-cane smash, following into a Tri-cane explosion, hitting Duke, who countered with a hard blow. Kaia ran up to where they were fighting, as Duke turned his attention towards her, unleashing a strong blow, but Kaia just blocked it, and waited for her opening.

"Stay out of this," Billy ordered, as he went to engage Duke again, "go and rescue my sister," he ordered, as he kept Duke busy, allowing Kaia to slip past him, and to the beam where Lilly was being suspended from. Lilly looked up, as she saw a raven-haired woman, come and grab the rope, just as it was about to finish fraying . Kaia pulled as hard as she could, slowly but surely drawing Lilly up, much to the relief of everyone down at ground level.

Meanwhile, Billy and Duke were engaged in a death duel, Billy taking hits as well as giving them, though he didn't really feel the pain, countering Duke's jump attack with Karyuu Tsuigeki Kon, and the countering the next charging blow with Suiryuu Tsuigeki Kon. He then followed with a charge attack himself, but was grabbed by Duke, as he countered, ripping Billy's bandana off his head, exposing Billy's gold locks, the bandana fluttering away in the breeze like an errant bird. Billy was kneed in the gut by Duke hurting him, and then thrown away, as Duke began to move towards Lilly and Kaia, who had made sure that Lilly had gotten behind her, and then went into a ready stance. Billy, dazed, saw Duke go to hit Kaia, as Kaia just blocked, but was slowly being backed closer to the edge of the roof, while Lilly was also getting closer to the edge.

"Slip away," Kaia said, as she distracted Duke by forcing him right with a counter attack, as Lilly raced left, and down the other side of the roof to Joe who held her tightly and then climbed up the roof, "I have to help," he said, as he kissed Lilly and went up. Kaia meanwhile, had been backed up to the end, the physically stronger Duke, using his weight and attacks to push her backwards, even though she landed a couple of ruthless counters, this guy would not give up. Suddenly, her footing slipped, as she was out of space, dropping to one knee she blocked an overhead punch but the impact sent her slipping. She grabbed the roof bar and hung on. Billy, having seen this became incensed, his anger boiling, not only for Lilly, who was now safe, but for Kaia, who was in great danger. He charged towards Duke, as Duke turned around blocking Billy's furious attack.

Kai saw that Kaia was now hanging onto the roof railing, he directed the crowd to hold the tarpaulin under her, as he climbed on top of it, ready to catch his sister if need be. He hoped he didn't have to. Kaia was trying to haul herself up, as Joe made his way up to the roof, but she was losing grip, her palms having become sweaty. Billy looked and saw that Kaia was about to fall, he quickly ran towards her, she lost her grip but then saw a red staff, she grabbed it, as it extended. Billy was lying on his stomach on the roof, holding the other end. "Don't worry, I've got you," Billy said, through the pain, as Duke stomped his back. Kaia slowly shimmied up the staff, as Duke stomped again, Billy let out a cry of pain. Meanwhile, Joe was having trouble getting up the roof to where the fight was being, as a helicopter came flying over, standing between him and the fight.

This was Duke's escape copter, Joe thought, as he shielded himself. and then had to run down as the bullets began to pepper where he was standing. "Let me go," Kaia said, "my brother will catch me down there."

"Never, it's too risky," Billy countered, "and you know it too."

Kaia kept climbing, she was near the top, as Duke sadistically stomped on Billy again, the pain coursing through Billy's body. Kaia having turned and climbed one third of the bar began to swing, and then executed a graceful jump as she grabbed the roof railing again, freeing Billy's staff, and she swung up like a gymnast back onto the roof. Duke, trying to stomp him again brought his boot down, but Billy rolled away, Kaia went to fight Duke but Billy stopped her, "he's mine," Billy said., making it absolutely clear that he didn't want any interference. "Just be safe," he continued, taking deep breathes, panting.

Duke launched another furious attack coming at Billy, who smiled, a feral grin on his face as he countered with a Chou Kaen Senpuu Kon, burning flames beginning to cover Duke's body, Billy followed it up with Dai Senpuu as Duke beat away the flames, this time the Dai Senpuu being backed with red flame as well. Duke stumbled towards his helicopter, as it opened, and a man went to pull Duke in, beating away at the flames. A gunman lay a scattering pattern of fire, to keep Kaia from chasing the chopper. Billy collapsed, exhausted from the fight, bruised from the stomping he had taken. Kai had now reached the roof, now that everyone was safe. "Well, that's the concert over. We'll just have to postpone it, until Billy gets better." he thought. He saw Kaia kneeling over Billy's prone form, as she held his hand. "You okay," she asked, "somebody get some help up here."

Kai went towards Kaia and Billy, "here sis, we'll carry him down together, carefully, as she picked up Billy's legs and Kai supported his head and shoulders. They slowly moved down the sloped roof, to the waiting stretcher. Kai had to stay behind to get the rest of the band and the fans managed, but he told Kaia to go in the ambulance with Joe and Lilly. Out at the ambulance outside the stadium, the paramedics looked at Kaia, but she wasn't really suffering anything except for a bruised ankle and arms from all the blocking she had done. Billy, however, they put in on an intravenous drip to replace the fluids that he had lost. They were keeping him safe for observation and they needed to check the extent of his back injury.

Three hours later, Kai walked into the room at the hospital, he saw Kaia there, Lilly and Joe had gone to get something to eat. Kaia sat next to the bed, holding Billy's hand, as he slept peacefully. Just then, Billy's eyes fluttered, and he awoke. "Hey, Billy," Kai said, as he noticed his band's frontman regain consciousness. "Everything's okay now," he continued, as Joe and Lilly returned from the hospital cafeteria.

"Lilly, you're okay," Billy said, softly from his bed.

"Thanks to you, big brother," she replied, from her position across the room.

"I'm okay too, thanks to you," Kaia added, "Thanks for the save."

"Yeah," Billy replied, breathing deeply, "I couldn't let you fall like that."

"Thanks," Kaia continued, blushing deeply, "you know I've been one of your biggest fans since the band began."

"Of all the cheesy pick up lines, sis, gees, just tell him that you like him," Kai interjected, "I think we should leave the two fools alone," he continued as he ushered Lilly and Joe out and closed the door behind them.

Outside Lilly, smiled and Joe breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally, big brother will be out of our hair, don't tell him, but it's so hard, when big brother does nothing but distract us from our love life. Now that he's hopefully getting some of his own."

Kai laughed, "which reminds me, I should get home to my wife too, listen in on the door for me won't you?" he said, winking, as he left for home.

Inside the room, Kaia was holding fast onto Billy's hand as she sat be his bedside, "well, after my stupid brother, your stupid manager went and spoilt everything..."

Billy laughed, it hurt a little, as Kaia continued, "well, I suppose that you should know that I've liked you ever since I first saw you at the audition that day. And then when you turned up in my house and I had to kiss you and we ended up kissing on the lips," she let the setence drift off, unsure of what to say

Billy gripped Kaia's hand harder, and turned to face her replying, "I like you too, especially when you kissed me on the lips, even if it was by accident and because my baka manager, your brother dared you to do it," a smile on his face.

Kaia's heart skipped a beat, as that sank in, the man she crushed on, the frontman of a world famous band, liked her as well, composing herself she replied, "well, hope you get better soon, I think we should let the others back in before they think we're doing anything," she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek but he turned away from her and their lips met again.

"You..." Kaia said, blushing furiously as she saw the smirk on Billy's face, causing her to go even redder. She let go of his hand and walked over to the door, opening it, finding Lilly's ear pressed to the door. "You guys," Kaia complained, "were you listening in on us? Kai put you up to this didn't he?"

Lilly's look said all that needed to be said, it was indeed Kai. Gargh, she thought to herself. But then she remembered, she had Billy there with her, when he got better, well it would be two against one now. She grinned ready to think up of some really nasty pranks to pull.

It took a couple of days before Billy was discharged. Two weeks later, the band replayed the concert to a packed out stadium, this time there were no hitches on the musicians parts. Kai and his family, Kaia, Lilly and Joe were in a box watching the concert. Afterwards, they made their way down to the pitch and Kaia hugged Billy as he came up, the photographers catching the whole thing on film. That would be over all the newspapers and magazines tommorrow, Kai thought, as he watched Billy and Kaia. Not that it matters much besides the fact that they are together now. Kaia and Billy left with the rest of the band, and Kai's family and Lilly and Joe, whilst Kai remained behind to supervise all the packing up. By the time he returned home, he was dead tired and flopped onto bed next to his wife.

Kaia and Billy, after dropping off everyone else, indulged themselves in the back of the limo with a kiss, until they pulled up to her house, she invited him in, and he stayed the night, sleeping on the couch, they weren't that intimate yet.

The next morning she went to kiss him awake, of course he was already awake and was ready to surprise her again as he pulled her in for a good morning kiss.

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Author's Notes 

1. Thanks to everyone who is reading this. Epilogue is the next chapter then HMK 2 will come, and then maybe I'll go back and write Streets of Southtown.(to fill in the gap year)

2. In response to the question: Yes and No, my fictional Southtown is divided into three areas of control: Meira's district (the relatively peaceful area) like the Bogard residence, Duke's district (the roughest district)and Heinlein's district. ADDES right now are only beginning to make their moves for land. So there are sort of like 4 areas. But that should be more fully answered in the sequel.

3. Redid Billy's 2-bar super so it now looks like this and actually chains properly (hopefully) - imagining it in my head is pretty hard

Grand Kane Smash  
Charging staff jab (invincible) into (possibly Dai Kaiten Geri into - dunno if I will leave this in or not...) half crouching jab with end of staff into a flaming crouchinguppercut with the other end of staff, turning overhead strike with stick exploding, turning around separating staff into 3 striking with end and then inverting it by turning around into a downwards strike into a flaming crouching uppercutinto Seven Somersaulting flaming dai senpuu, slam into ground on last with flames, and then opponent's body flies upwards, Billy swings his ignited staff two hands at the end sending flaming opponent flying to the moon (or other end of the arena).

4. Bit more spoiler for HMK2: Look forward to a Shingo/Kyo/Iori vs Rock/Kai/Billy matchup. :)

5. Theoretically the timeline is this: KOF 2003, KOF MI, KOF XI, KOF:Another Day, HMK, KOF MI2, HMK2 (KOF XII) or KOF2003, KOF MI, KOF XI, KOF: Another Day, KOF MI2, HMK, HMK 2/KOF XII. Haven't quite decided that one yet, but will probably be going with the former.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.

Authors Notes Pt1: Well this is the last chapter of this story everyone. Thanks to everyone who read it, special thanks to everyone who reviewed. Big big thanks to LegendarySuperNamek for his suggestions on the sequel as well which will be forthcoming, but certainly won't be being put up as fast as this one has.

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Epilogue - Location: Kane residence, London 

It had been a month since that incident. Now the band was well into writing its second CD, starting to produce some of the tracks as the band worked hard through the day and sometimes into the night. The band was working to a tight schedule, the success of their first album continued to soar, as it broke through the Australian market, and the Canadian market after its US and UK success. They were launching in Asia soon, hopefully, they would do just as well. Kai spent more time at home with his family, as Joe and Lilly's relationship intensified, somewhat, though Billy still tried to interfere. The laundromat continued making money, giving Billy some time off from his band job, he still sat there strumming away sometimes, on the weekend, behind the counter.

Joe had also begun teaching Lilly some Muay Thai to keep her from being such an easy target for kidnap, much to Billy's chagrin who began to teach her as well how to fight with a staff, Kai and Kaia of course, butted in as well, teaching Lilly some other basics of self-defence, though not their personal styles. Kaia continued to work in intelligence, but when she wasn't on missions, she was seeing Billy, much to the delight of her own brother, who was delighted with the amount of blackmail material that he was coming up with. Kaia and Billy came up with some ways to play pranks on Kai, in return for all the ones that he had pulled on them, having success.

Kai, Kaia and Billy started sparring in the mornings to keep healthy and in good fighting trim, which was important for Kaia because of her work in Intelligence. Kaia won most of the time of course, against her brother, with Billy, somehow she had less success, perhaps because of his fighting style, the jabbing staff really got her annoyed as Billy probed away at her defence, usually frustrating her into presenting an opening. When Kai and Billy sparred, they were evenly matched with their different styles. Sometimes Joe came too and they would fight two on two, inventing new combination moves.

Kai kept tabs on Iori's whereabouts just as a precaution: though he was currently in Southtown, and Kai was not going to visit anytime soon, but seriously, he didn't want to fight Iori, though sometimes letters of challenge came through the fanmail which he just ignored. He got into contact with Kyo though, to ask him how he handled Iori's unwillingness to quit and constant death threats. Kyo did give him a few tips, but they weren't so useful.

Duke had escaped and returned to Southtown, where the gang war intensified, as Heinlein made a big push for more territory countered by both the Meira's and Duke's gang making pushes themselves, the gang warfare was getting really bad, so Terry, Mary and Rock had dropped by to visit for a while, also to visit Joe, who was now grudgingly accepted as Lilly's boyfriend, and Billy was now able to entertain the notion that Joe was going to be his brother in law someday, though he still claimed to totally dislike it.

Terry, Mary and Rock stayed over at the Kane house, and Kaia came over every night for dinner as well. One night, after a particularly satisfying dinner, Billy, Kaia, Rock, Terry, Mary, Joe and Lilly sat around the lounge room drinking coffee, wine and other beverages, just enjoying themselves, away from the fighting that had plagued for most of their lives. Kai had left early, for work he had to do before tomorrow morning, and a wife and kids to go back to as well. That adventure had been taxing on Kai's marriage, though his wife was used to him being away, he had missed his child's birthday, and he had spent more time with his kids as a consequence.

"The situation's pretty bad in Southtown now," Mary said, as she and Billy were in the kitchen, "Heinlein's making overtures to Rock, by dangling his mother's past in front of him, we're worried that he might rush into things. I think that he could benefit from staying here a while, with you and Kaia, while Terry and I do some searching. Don't want Rock to get in over his head."

Billy thought about it, as he made more coffee, "mmm...yes, that's probably for the best, though Kaia could probably help you guys with finding information on Rock's mother, if you just tell her the name, she'll turn up something."

They went and rejoined the others in the lounge, Billy pouring more coffee for his guests. Apparently, Kaia, Terry and Rock had been talking about fighting styles while they had been in the kitchen.

"You have to spar with Kaia sometime, she's absolutely ruthless if you give her any opening at all," Billy interjected emphasising the last two words, laughing afterwards.

"Yeah, I am, though you're no fun, jabbing that stick at me all the time, forcing me to throw projectiles at you, and then you just dodge or cancel them with that stick of yours, forcing me to charge you, it gets a bit boring," Kaia replied leaning her head on Billy's shoulder.

"Are you that good now?" Mary asked, "wanna spar tomorrow?"

"Of course," Kaia replied, "my brother comes too, he's pretty decent, though his style is a lot different to mine, he's a lot more unpredictable," emphasising the lot in her sentence.

"I wouldn't mind a spar tomorrow either, we'll all meet tomorrow morning," Terry replied.

"it'll be fun, when I get to beat you Bogard," Billy said, smirking.

"Yeah right, it'll be you who's getting beat up by me," Terry shot back.

"Why you..." Billy began, face turning red.

"Boys," both Mary and Kaia said at the same time, both surprised at their reaction, blushing.

"Save it for tomorrow," Joe drawled from where he and Lilly had been sitting, as they all laughed at Billy and Terry's expense.

Thankfully, the two now friendly rivals calmed down, and went back to their drinks and moving to other topics, gossiping about the latest news of the other fighters in Southtown and what romantic trysts and triangles there were, laughing at the anecdotes of all the antics of Andy and Mai, who were still to get any closer to being married.

The topic moved onto other things, like music, art and other parts of life, other than fighting and sparring. These were the good times in England and the travellers were enjoying their time away from the fighting and the crime infested streets of Southtown, where the Meira's, Heinlein and Duke continued to battle for control.

When they had finished, Joe and Kaia said goodbye as they left for their respective homes, and the rest of the Kane household and their guests turned in for the night, ready for some friendly, or not so friendly, sparring tomorrow. Billy climbed into his bed, and as he closed his eyes, he reflected over what had happened in his life, from orphan to criminal from criminal to laundromat owner, from laundromat owner to rock star, from nothing to everything back to nothing and everything again. From a life of constant danger, hopefully to a life of relative peace. Finally, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, looking forward to tomorrow.

THE END

* * *

Author's Notes Pt 2 

1. Boss team - Sure they may appear as the 'boss'.

2. So more info about the sequel - it's going to be round robin style before going onto elimination matches, like the Soccer World Cup.

3. Proposed Groups -

Group1 - Ash team, Benimaru Team, Fatal Fury Team, Women's team

Group2 - HMK team, Kyo/Iori team, Korea Team, Ikari Warriors

Group3 - Neo Psycho Soldiers, Outlaw team, MOTW, Anti-Ash team

Group4 - ADDES team, Kyokugenryu, Anti-Kyokugenryu, K' team

Suggestions are welcomed for changes...

4. Just wait till you see the plot line I have installed, I will guarantee that you will be surprised, shocked and riveted

5. Finalised teams for HMK 2: (if there are any glaring errors please point out)

Ash team - Ash Crimson, Ron , Elisabeth Blantorche

HMK team - Rock Howard, Kai Mellion, Billy Kane

Sacred Treasures/Kyo Iori team - Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Shingo Yabuki

K' team - K', Kula Diamond, Maxima

Fatal Fury - Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi

Korea Team - Kim Kaphwan, Choi Bounge, Chang Koehan

Alba team (Anti-Ash team) - Alba Meira, Luise Meyrink, Oswald

Kyokugen team - Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Yuri Sakazaki

ADDES team - Soiree Meira (brainwashed), Nagase, Duke (braincontrolled)

Neo Psycho Soldiers - Duo Lon, Sie Kensou, Athena Asamiya

Ikari Warriors - Leona Heidern, Ralf Jones, Clark Steel

Women's team - King Sakazaki, Mai Shiranui-Bogard, "Blue" Mary Ryan-Bogard

Anti- Kyokugen - Malin, Kasumi Todoh, Eiji Kisaragi

Outlaw - Ryuji Yamazaki, Lin, Gato

Benimaru team - Benimaru Nikaido, Shen Woo, Seth

MOTW team - Bonne Jenet, Hotaru Futaba, Tizoc

Nb. Though I may decide to switch Shen Woo and Oswald...I can't decide this one...


End file.
